1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic circuits and more particularly, to a resettable short-circuit protection configuration.
2. Description of the Related Art
For the protection of a circuit system to prevent short circuit, a fuse is usually installed in the power end. However, a fuse is not reusable. When a fuse is burned out, it must be replaced with a new one. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a short circuit protection architecture that can be reset to supply power again after the short circuit has been eliminated.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,218 discloses a circuit configuration for short-circuit protection of a power transistor, which comprises a depletion MOSFET, an enhancement MOSFET, a resistor, a variable thermal resistor, and a current sensor. This circuit architecture provides short-circuit protection. However, because the circuit configuration uses a current sensor for short circuit detection, many circuit components are used. In consequence, the manufacturing cost of the circuit configuration is high.